Legit sites:
https://www.newgrounds.com/games
Also check out the gaming section of fmhy if you change your mind and do want to pirate
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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A lot of people seem to be misunderstanding OP's question and just suggesting places that offer free games.
OP is asking if there's any not shady way to get a game that's offered for free on Steam without DRM other than using the Steam client.
If the game is only available through Steam then unfortunately the answer is no. Depending on the nature of your objection to the Steam client there are some possible courses of action other than going somewhere sketchy though.
You could install it, download the game, copy it from the Steam install location, then uninstall Steam.
Alternatively keep a sandboxed Steam client installed in a VM to download the game which you extract from the VM.
Another option might be to just ask someone you know that does use Steam to download the game and send it to you.
Oh yea, I was gonna use a VM and make a burner account. Still the original phrasing of the question was bad so don't blame them lol. It's edited. Some people still suggested itch.io after that (I already use itch.io and GOG btw (And also got all my games off steam except the ones with denuvo or that, they were mostly indie singleplayer games anyways)) but it was certainly less people.
Gog is the obvious choice but there isn't really a lot of free games on it
God I wish they had a Linux app
I heard they were working on one I think?
It's coming but I've used Heroic with GOG for years, it works great.
I will check this out, thank you!
Linux noob here.....
You'll likely be able to find if on whatever store your distro comes with. There's also the third party launcher Lutris but I have found Heroic to be great. If you're playing games without a linux version, Heroic will help you install WINE versions as well, so you can play almost anything.
does heroic support gog?
It does.
So wait, I might not be understanding what you're asking correctly, but if you want to download free games without DRM, that you don't intent to pirate...
Are you just looking for itch.io?
Yes the phrasing was bad. I just meant some specific games that were updated on steam that are free and I am pretty sure they have no DRM I don't know if it is considered pirating maybe it is idk the definition of it I just don't want to like install steam and that.
Apologies for the bad phrasing lol.
Steam is DRM.
Steam is a platform. It does provide optional DRM that some games use, but there are others that are DRM-free
Basically, you're just looking for PC game stores that carry free games other than Steam, right? In that case, Itch.io is the main place to look. Beyond that, games will primarily be distributed on their developer or publisher's website. Piracy probably won't be an easy option, as people aren't going to put in the work creating/uploading pirate copies of a game thats easily available otherwise.
Edit: Also, I think you may be able to use SteamCMD (Steam's non-launcher, CLI tool) to download the game if its DRM free.
Something like this in SteamCMD:
spoiler
login anonymous
force_install_dir
app_update validate
Are you looking for a launcher for these separate games? If so, Playnite might be what you're looking for. I don't think it'll handle updates though. Also, GoG is a great source of DRM-free games, so maybe check that for you're after since GoG Galaxy works similarly and has been less shit lately.
Yeah unless they've been published on another site, that would be pirating them.
If the game is only on Steam, install Linux on a VM, install Wine in it, run SteamCMD through Wine, download the build you want, and move to your host OS.
SteamCMD is a minimalist/terminal-based version of Steam. The Windows version can be downloaded separately. However, it downloads needed libraries and I'm not sure how good Steam is at escaping Wine's environment, so a VM adds an extra security layer. Also the command changes depending of whether it's 32-bit or 64-bit, if it's for Linux, MacOS or Windows, or even if it's a previous, still public update, and it's been some years since I used those and I don't have the commands noted down, so can't help with that at least right now.
Also, as others said, @Untamed_Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone, if the game is on a DRM-free-oriented platform, like GOG, Itchio, etc., you could look for those.
Additionally, looking for sources of a given game can help find where it's less of a hassle to get it, specially through databases or adjacent, like PCGamingWiki, ITAD, NeoDB (fediverse-compatible!), GameFAQS, etc. Also apparently it isn't uncommon for databases to cross-reference each other, so one can lead to another.
Is it a moral obligation or something because if not and you are comfortable with cli you can use steamcmd
no it is not, it's a free game lol. I just didn't want to have to use steam directly or whatever
But apparently you need to login to install free games with steamcmd??? Really odd stuff. It asks you to have a subscription for the free game but you can only claim it if you have an account. I think I will just end up making alt accounts anyways.
Gog or itch.io